Highly desirable roof and shade structures may be fabricated of aluminum, plastic or other composition components. Some such structures utilize generally horizontal channels having a generally U-shaped cross section with upward and/or outward-facing lips that engage similar lip structures (including standing seam structures) of adjacent channels to form a water-tight roof panel assembly. The U-shape not only captures and, if tilted, drains rainwater but is relatively easy to join to adjacent, like such channels. Moreover, the U-shape also provides a relatively rigid component that, when joined with other channels and properly supported, is capable of withstanding fairly significant snow, wind and other loads.
Channel ends (whether U-shaped or of other shapes) may be capped with another, preferably capped channel running orthogonal to the U-shaped channels. Such a capping channel can be a simple U-shaped or C-shaped channel into which the roofing channel ends are received. Preferably, in most situations, however, the structure into which the roofing channel ends are received should be a gutter having a trough of some sort so that at least slightly inclined roof channels can dump rainwater or snow melt into the gutter, and the gutter can convey the water to a downspout for conveying the water to the ground or into a drainage pipe, reservoir or other receiving component.
Desirable such gutter shapes provide not only a bottom support and gutter channel for conveying rainwater but include a cap to cover the U-shaped channel ends and further rigidify the entire roof structure.